Hawking

In his widely praised biography of Paul Dirac, "The Strangest Man", Graham Farmelo achieved something quite remarkable: a memorable and absorbing portrayal of the life of a theoretical physicist of retiring temperament who was held in awe by the scientific community, yet scarcely heard of …

In his widely praised biography of Paul Dirac, "The Strangest Man", Graham Farmelo achieved something quite remarkable: a memorable and absorbing portrayal of the life of a theoretical physicist of retiring temperament who was held in awe by the scientific community, yet scarcely heard of by the wider public. In this recently published biography of Stephen Hawking, Farmelo undertakes a different, yet also demanding, challenge: to portray the life of an extroverted theoretical physicist whose public celebrity rivals that of Einstein, yet whose scientific achievements, while of considerable importance, do not rival those of either Dirac or Einstein. Moreover, Farmelo has undertaken an authorised biography. He had the privilege of access to a wealth of family papers and frank recollections, which brings with it a responsibility to balance a diversity of privately expressed views. Farmelo achieves this task with skill and restraint, largely refraining from speculation, hyperbole or expression of his private opinion, yet creating a compelling and accurate narrative. The closest that he comes to a personal evaluation of Stephen is in an Epilogue that is pitch-perfect, to my mind. This is a biography that respects the arrow of time. It is free from eager anticipation of future events, or vivid flash-backs, which may make for good movies yet may also mar an objectively written biography. Of course, we readers already know that Stephen will survive an apparent death sentence for more than 50 years, overcoming physical limitations to enjoy a scientifically productive and hugely adventurous life, with much relish, little self-pity and scant claim of personal bravery. On this journey we are firmly grounded in Stephen's present, thanks to contemporary writings and carefully curated recollections by his parents, siblings, wives, children, carers and colleagues. Of these, the extracts from diary entries and letters by Stephen's mother, Isobel, make compelling reading. They are written in the vivid present, by a person of fine intelligence and strong spirit, who has much to lose and no knowledge of the future. These are balanced by extracts of very private comments by Stephen's father, Frank, often written in a primitive code, to forestall perusal, in which regrets for lack of recognition of his own considerable achievements combine with fears that his son's wayward temperament in youth and later physical disability will frustrate or even ruin Frank's parental hopes and aspirations. We know that Stephen will triumph; Isobel and Frank do not. This makes for a good story. This is also the biography of a physicist who became a celebrity. It makes no claim to be a scientific biography. Yet Farmelo's training in theoretical physics and his experience of conveying complex ideas from general relativity and quantum theory, as a university teacher and author, underwrite the authenticity of the comments that he makes on Stephen's work. Moreover, this background gives him trusted access to the opinions of scientists of stature, of which he has made good use. The lay reader will find courteous asides, rarely of more length than a paragraph, in which the context and significance of Stephen's talks and articles are indicated, as they arise. Fellow scientists should find little to object to and much to admire in these short explanations. I noticed only two slight lacunae, too small to mention here. Such fidelity to biography and to science is not easily achieved. The quality and extent of Farmelo's scholarship is indicated by more than a hundred pages of notes, bibliography and index entries. Yet these do not interfere with his clear narration; I found no need to interrupt my reading by referring to footnotes. Rather, I found this biography well-paced, with helpful divisions into chapters that were appropriately and imaginatively titled. It is, quite simply, a good read, as well as a fine and honest piece of work. I found it hard to put down, even though I already had a rather clear idea of what was to come next. For readers with less acquaintance of Stephen's physics and ardent globe-trotting exploits, I imagine that it may be even more exciting. Mindful of a publisher's dictum that every equation deters a large proportion of lay readers, Farmelo's text gives only one, "S=A/4", which is even shorter than the better known equation "E=mc^2". Its fuller version, for Hawking's prediction of the entropy of a black hole, made in 1974, is justly commemorated in Westminster Abbey and appears in the final photograph of two attractive collections included in the book. From this follows the predicted temperature of Hawking radiation from a black hole of given mass, yet to be confirmed. I noticed a couple of remarks by Nobel laureates that may serve to divide Stephen's scientific career into two halves. In 1980, Stephen entitled his inaugural lecture, as Lucasian professor, "Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics?", optimistically anticipating a reconciliation of general relativity with quantum theory that still eludes us. Asking his predecessor Paul Dirac for encouragement, he received a polite written reply, concluding with the answer "No". In 1982, Stephen convened a meeting in Cambridge on "The Very Early Universe". A participant, Frank Wilczek, later recalled that this event "may have marked Hawking's high point as a practising scientist." To arrive at such an apogee by the age of 40, after barely scraping a first class degree and confronting a vicious disease, is cause for celebration. To live another 36 years of continuing intellectual engagement and increasingly active involvement with wider concerns of humanity is, as Farmelo's dedication notes, a great encouragement "for anyone thinking of giving up on life".